Anti-military protesters rally in Egypt

Protesters defy evening curfew in at least four cities, as three people are killed in clashes around the country.

07 Sep 2013 01:35 GMT

At least three people have been killed as thousands of people took to the streets in several cities across Egypt to protest against military rule.

The main rallies took place after weekly Friday prayers in the capital, Cairo, while other protests broke out elsewhere in the country including in the second city Alexandria and the Nile Delta province city of Damietta.

Protesters in least four cities defied the 7pm (17:00 GMT) curfew and remained on the streets, waving Egyptian flags and chanting "down with military rule'' in demonstrations that began after midday prayers in Ismailiya, Suez, Assiut, among other cities.

In Cairo, protesters rallied in the upscale suburb of Maadi after the Friday prayers.

Others held up pictures of toppled President Mohamed Morsi, who was ousted by the military on July 3 after mass protests against him.

One person was killed in Alexandria and another in Damietta when clashes there erupted between opponent and supporters of Morsi, medics said.

The protests come a day after Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim survived a bomb targeting his convoy.

Peaceful protests

Al Jazeera's special correspondent in Cairo, whom we are not naming for security reasons, said most protests were taking place peacefully, though some incidents of violence had been reported in certain parts of the country.

"Protests have taken place in seven governorates across the country, [but] there has not been any significant violence in Cairo," our correspondent said.

In Tanta city in the Nile Delta, security forces intervened with tear gas after clashes broke out between anti-coup protesters and local residents, our correspondent said.

In Alexandria, clashes took place between opposing sides after Muslim Brotherhood supporters attempted to march in their thousands along a main thoroughfare of the city.

Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood had called Friday's protests for "the people to protect the revolution", in reference to the uprising that ousted longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak in early 2011.

Protests have been getting smaller in recent weeks following bloodshed in mid-August that killed more than 1,000 people, most of them when security forces broke up pro-Morsi sit-ins in Cairo.

Egypt's state news agency MENA said 14 Muslim Brotherhood members were arrested on Friday in seven governorates. The total number of people arrested had reached 78 by early evening.

Since Morsi's ouster Egypt's authorities have arrested the Brotherhood's spiritual leader and more than 2,000 members, disrupting the group's ability to mobilise supporters.